Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 199, 1900

Steed, D.

Geelong, Victoria, Australia

March 21, 1900

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother Steed:

I have written some things for your benefit and for the benefit of the church. Brother Baker will read it to you. I do not want him to let the matter go out of his hands into yours. I have fears that should you receive the message I send you, you would, under the suggestions of the enemy, criticize the matter written and as the result do harm to your own soul and to other souls. I cannot have evidence that the fear of the Lord is going before you. The enemy has control of your mind when you begin to criticize and pick flaws and domineer over anyone you dare to. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 1

Now my brother, I have instruction to give you. It is not the best thing for the New Zealand Conference, or any other conference, to endorse your labors as a minister of the gospel and thus signify that you are in full confidence of the conference to take charge of the church in any place. You need to become a learner before you are to be trusted with the work of the Lord as a teacher. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 2

I advise you, my brother, to separate in your work from the companionship of those with whom you cannot harmonize. Take up some other lines of work, and for your own soul’s sake take heed unto yourself. Your individual self is all that you are capable now of handling. Certainly your brethren cannot conscientiously advise you to remain in the ministry when you are constantly criticizing, when you are doing the flock of God harm in the place of good. I advise you to take up some line of work where you can be laboring with your hands. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 3

The conference cannot be authorized to pay your wages to work against the ministers or to create a condition of things that will cost them much anxiety and worriment wherever you shall be. The work of the minister is a sacred, solemn work, and the men in responsibility should feel that they make themselves responsible for the setting of a shepherd over the flock who is not faithful to care for that flock [so] that no mischief shall come to any one of the Lord’s sheep or lambs. They are to feel that they are physicians of souls, to hunt up the spiritually diseased and to not leave them poisoned to the death with your administration of drugs in the form of evil surmisings, criticism, and faultfinding. These evils naturally bring evil attributes into church character building. You make the work very much harder after you have had the care of the sheep for a time. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 4

There would be much more peace and much more hope of prosperity for any church if men of your temperament have nothing to do with the sheep of the Lord’s pasture. You feel capable of taking responsibilities, whatever they may be. You have not wisdom to do a clean, uplifting, thorough work. Your wife’s labors are valuable as long as she is not a partaker of your spirit, but it will be most difficult for her not to sympathize with you in your manufacturing business of creating dissension and strife. It is a terrible thing for a shepherd of the flock to feed the sheep with poison rather than healthful food. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 5

Our brethren become very weary of your suspicions. Your mind is easily worked by the enemy, and I see no way out of the dilemma but to release you from the work you are doing, for it is not perfecting your character. 15LtMs, Lt 199, 1900, par. 6